


John

by Melereth



Series: No Chance To Fix This? [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 22:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melereth/pseuds/Melereth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a while the disappearance of Greg is noticed</p>
            </blockquote>





	John

John starred with confusion at his mobile. The screen showed a text from Sally Donovan, asking him if he knew the current whereabouts of Greg Lestrade. He frowned, the last three days had been a nightmare, there was pain, lack of understanding, hate and guilt, and the rest was a blur.   
Pain over the loss of his best friend, the lack of understanding why he did this, hate for Moriarty and his evil scheme, and guilt that he, John, obviously had not see the signs. He did not see how much Sherlock felt cornered, that his friend did not think that John would - or could help him. He also felt anger at Mycroft, who had given Moriarty the ammunition. 

The last time he had seen Greg was at the hospital, when he had lashed out at him, something he wasn’t proud of. He knew that Greg only did his job – hell, Greg had even phoned before he came to arrest Sherlock. He had warned them. John was ashamed that he had hit Greg, but back then he had only felt anger and pain. He cringed as he remembered the detective inspector’s face after he yelled at him; Greg had immediately turned around and went away. John got himself arrested by an officer who was at the scene. He couldn’t forget that he also punched the superintendent the night before. When he was released only an hour later, he had no doubt that it was Mycroft’s doing.

Back at Baker Street John shut himself out from the world. He was hurting, but he knew that he’d get better. He was a soldier and sadly he had experience with the death of friends. He felt that it was always better to keep busy with work. That kept him from thinking about Sherlock too much. John was better when he kept to himself, dealing with the loss on his own, and trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his friend was gone. After that, he’d be able to talk about it, but not now, and certainly not yesterday when his therapist wanted him to. So he went to work, not that day – but yesterday and today he was at the surgery, he saw his patients, and after the surgery hours he buried himself in the paperwork that he had brought back home. But there wasn’t that much paperwork and he needed another distraction. Finding out where Greg was, and why his team was searching for him would fill this need.

He stood up and headed for the kitchen to make tea. While he waited for the kettle to boil, he texted Sally back ‘No, I do not know where Greg is. Problem?’ By the time he took the tea-bag out of his mug, his phone chimed again ‘Not sure, he was last seen after you got arrested. He doesn’t answer his phone – all calls are going straight to voicemail and he wasn’t at his flat since then. Do you know the man he is with?’ 

‘Yes, I’ll ask him.’ 

After Sally’s last question it was clear that she did not know that Greg was with Mycroft. John had not seen Mycroft since Sherlock’s sui… jump and he tried to think through a text to send to Mycroft that sounded right. Or better, not totally awful. He came up with, ‘Hello Mycroft, if you need to talk you can count on me. Is Greg with you?’  
John was not sure when and if he would hear from Mycroft. To Greg’s phone he sent ‘I’m sorry Greg, I overreacted. Please contact me’  
Three hours later he hadn’t heard from Greg, Mycroft, or Anthea and he got the uneasy feeling that there was something not quite right. He didn’t really want to, but he tried to call Mycroft. 

“John” Mycroft answered after two rings; John thought that he sounded tired. 

“Mycroft, I am sorry to disturb you. I want to say thank you for bailing me out of prison. And I tried to reach Greg. Is he with you?” 

“No need to thank me John. I am quite certain that Gregory is at his flat, I haven’t seen him in the last days. I couldn’t…” John heard how Mycroft took a deep breath and he had an awful feeling in his gut as he replied. 

“No he isn’t Mycroft, he was last seen after we had this … encounter at Bart’s. He wasn’t at home since then, all calls to his mobile are going to voicemail and he did not reply to my text.” The line went dead silent for a moment, and then Mycroft released his breath. 

“I will check that.” And Mycroft cut the connection.

John rubbed his hand over his face. Mycroft had not known that Greg was not at his flat, and that Greg was not answering his phone – the doctor had a very, very bad feeling about the situation. He called Sally.

“John Watson here” he said. “Greg is not with his friend, he had not seen him in the last few days. What had happened, why are you asking now? Why didn’t you say anything yesterday after he did not show up for work?” 

“Dr Watson,” Sally’s voice was hesitant “Greg was suspended after ... you know. Today was his hearing and he did not show up. After I couldn’t reach him I went to his flat. His neighbours haven’t seen him for days. The women that collect his mail said he was there a week ago to get it. Hell – I didn’t even know that he is with a man. She said that Greg practically moved into his boyfriends flat.” 

“I did not know that he was suspended, if I hear from Greg I let you know. Bye.” John was about to cut the connection when he heard Sally call his name. 

“Dr Watson!” 

“Yes?” 

“I … sorry, nothing. Goodbye.” The line went dead.

John sat down in his chair and thought about the situation, he did not believe that Greg would disappear of his own will. He wouldn’t leave because of his suspension, as far as he knew, Greg would stay and fight. But John had the feeling that he missed something. Why did Mycroft not realize that Greg was not at home? The two of them were so close… Mycroft’s words came back to him “I haven’t seen him in the last days. I couldn’t”. A suspicion nagged at him, he had his experience with Sherlock and his inability to process strong feelings. Mycroft sounded devastated and John’s anger at him was long gone. He knew that when Mycroft lost Sherlock he lost all his remaining family. And John had the feeling that Mycroft had cut himself off from the world. That was something that Sherlock would have done. He texted Mycroft, ‘Greg got suspended three days ago. He didn’t show up at the hearing today. His colleagues tried to track him – without success. His neighbours hadn’t seen him in days. I’ll go to his flat, maybe I’ll find something’ 

He slipped his coat on, grabbed his wallet, checked that his oyster and some money was in it, took his cane and the spare keys to Greg’s place, and left his flat. Before he entered the tube station he went into the Boots right beside it. Knowing that it would be a long walk, he bought painkillers and something to drink with caffeine. He hated cola, but he knew that the painkillers would kick sooner if he added caffeine. John decided to catch a train on the Hammersmith line, so that there would be no need to change the lines. That meant that he had a nearly 40 minute tube ride in front of him. The train was quite empty, so he didn’t have a problem to find a seat.

John played absentmindedly with Greg’s spare keys. Greg had given them the keys because if Sherlock wanted something he would break. If he had the keys, there was no damage. John looked around; no other commuters gave him any attention. There was something else odd going on though; there was not a single article since the one from Kitty Riley that mentioned him. There was no press at his door wanting to talk to him, no journalists on his phone, and the URL of his blog gave an error 404 after he set a link to the BBC News. He was sure that this was Mycroft’s or Anthea’s doing. 

His mind wandered back to Greg, John hoped that he was ok. He was sure that the suspension had hit Greg hard; he loved his job. And John had the suspicion that Mycroft had not been in contact – he could only guess how alone Greg felt. He was also quite sure that Greg did not really have friends. John was the only one to sometimes meet Greg after his shift for a pint. He and Sherlock were the ones who helped Greg move into his new flat after the divorce; there were no others to help, not even some of his colleagues from the Met. John remembered how Greg told him once that all his friends were in truth his wife’s friends. 

Greg was glad that Sherlock had helped him to find a flat. True, Barking was in Zone 4 but it was a nice flat in a nice and quite modern house with an acceptable rent. After they had moved all of Greg’s belongings to his new home, they had gone to The Spotted Dog, a pub not far from the tube station. John remembered that in their last private conversation, Greg had told him that The Spotted Dog would probably close this year and that Greg was a little down about that because he liked the Pub.

John hands shook as he used his key to open the door to Greg’s flat. He was afraid about what he would find. He did not think of Greg as the type that would harm himself, but he had thought the same about Sherlock – and he was terribly wrong there. He swallowed and opened the door. 

“Greg? It’s John!” he called out, as he stepped into the flat. He looked around; at least it did not smell like there was a body lying around. The living room looked normal, the kitchen too. John felt odd and even though he was quite sure that Greg wasn’t there, he knocked on the bedroom door before he opened it. 

The wardrobe door was open and it seemed like there were some clothes missing. John went to the bathroom. The cabinet over the sink was open too. There was no toothbrush, no razor. John would guess that Greg normally had a set here and a second set at Mycroft’s. 

He wrote a short message on a piece of paper and left it on the coffee table in the living room.   
John’s only idea was that Greg went to his parents. He knew that, even if they did not live close by, they were very tight, sure, it was a cliché – Greg looking for shelter with his parents but it was the only idea John had.   
So the next thing he would do was track down Greg’s parents.


End file.
